"But such is the sad state of anti Russia prejudice in Canada that not a peep of protest is seen or heard - not in mainstream or alternative media, and not from elected politicians or their parties..."

"The so-called Russiagate scandal never seems to end. Now it appears the Democrats colluded with Russia, not Trumpworld. Nonetheless, it is an alternative media like RT who are blamed. Are we entering a new age of censorship."

In prepared testimony for the first hearing, the tech companies revealed the sweeping scale of Russian influence operations on their platforms.

Facebook informed lawmakers that roughly 126 million Americans may have been exposed to content generated on its platform by a Russian government-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency between June 2015 and August 2017.

Twitter disclosed that it has identified 2,752 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency. It found a total of 36,746 accounts that appeared to be associated with Russia, though not necessarily with the Internet Research Agency, which generated automated, election-related content.

Trump has a strategy of normalizing his behaviour by making it a part of what people expect. Most observers are lousy at making distinctions. In this case there is a difference between hiring a company to find existing dirt on an opposition party, something that is frequently done, and engaging with a foreign government to spread lies in an effort to sway the electorate based on fraud.

Republicans, even those who do not like Trump, are following this game of saying that the Democrats have done somethign terrible by offering to pay for existing dirt comparing that to the Republicans dirty tricks.

"Russian sources say the release of the US prosecutor's indictment of Paul Manafort and Richard Gates III is of next to no interest to Russian prosecutors. This they say is because there is no evidence and no charge that any Russian person, source of Russian money, Russian publication or Russian government entity was involved in the activities, for which Manafort and Gates have been indicted.

For the story of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's business payments to Manafort of $18,938,400 read this. Not a word has appeared in the US court papers so far about the Deripaska business."

"The American propaganda campaign being waged against the Russian Federation and its president Vladimir Putin has reached a stage of perverse perfection. It is virtually impossible to put forth a dissenting opinion that will be accepted or considered worthy of consideration. The Democrats are leading the charge to silence and censor and they are getting buy-in from people who otherwise consider themselves to be progressive.

While the corporate media compete to see who can dumb down the country the fastest, the legal wheels are turning to get Trump out of office and Russia is the pretext for the action. Nothing matters to liberals more than getting Trump out of office. Their juvenile political understanding was turned upside down by Hillary Clinton's defeat and they haven't been the same since..."

"Russia's deputy foreign minister says the new US sanctions were no surprise for Moscow. Sergey Ryabkov emphasized that any attempt to force Russia into changing its policies were doomed to failure and only complicate international relations.

'I am bewildered by the fact that one day these internet giants said that someone has spent, for instance, US $5,000 for some political advertising and on the next day they say that 40 million US voters had been affected by some Russian socio-political ads. Their ends just don't meet..."

It is interesting watching Russia these days. They seem to be able to hang on to their independence unlike Canada that is getting more and more drawn into USA orbit. Trudeau has been rather disappointing for this canadian unlike Putin who seems to have a grip on the russians imagination. I wish the russians and Putin all the best in reaching their objectives. ( Just leave all that oil in the ground and stay away from the GMOs.)

Well, I am surprised that you are not aware that in this community of some 250 homes some one has setup around 800 gun posts in something like 120 of those homes and has destroyed a fair number of them. Also droning down the street looking for collateral kids and wedding parties in not an endearing trade mark.

Anyway all the best to you, you have been around rabble a long time. I probably will leave, this webside keeps freezing up on me and as a result is very slow and tedious.

Bubbles: Don't let Magoo drive you off. Lots of babblers understand that Russia has not been busy circling the US with client states and military bases over the past 30 years, and that Russia has 1/20th the military power of the US.

Mr Magoo may I suggest that you check out article in the ' www.globalresearch.ca ' website where a former Qatar minister stated that Qatar , Saudi Arabia and Turkey supplied wapons and money to Jihadists in Syria under instruction from Obama. Should we not all try to prevent these 'home invations'? Are there not other less damaging ways of solving disputes? Is Russia not doing the sensible thing by helping a commuity member that asked for assistance in dealing with these intruders?

"When governments tighten the thumbscrews on the media, there are a number of international agencies and groups geared up to defend free speech. We've been in touch with many of them in the wake of RT America being forced to register as a 'foreign agent' in the United States.

"According to the US Department of Justice, RT - this channel - is an agent of a foreign, even hostile, power. All the while, the DOJ refuses to explain why this is the case or even cite what laws we may have broken. But something else is in play: critics warn RT is a test case for a wider campaign of media suppression."

The image provided by the Russian defence ministry was damning: three Daesh trucks led by an armoured vehicle on their way to a key battlefield in eastern Syria, allowed safe passage by the United States.

Russian drones, its foreign ministry said on social media, spotted the convoy fleeing Bukamal on Nov. 9, the same day Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces said they captured the key militant stronghold on the Euphrates River. Their safe passage was “irrefutable evidence” the United States allows the Daesh, also known as ISIS, to wreak havoc to meet their interests in the region, the ministry said on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’re a gamer interested in air combat simulators, you may have already seen the convoy before you gunned down digital enemies on your computer screen while playing AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special OPS Squadron, released in 2015 by the Byte Conveyor game studio.

Russia also has "exclusive footage" of an Italian-American plumber harrassing a gorilla.